1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air purifier, and more particularly, to an air purifier having a small size and easily mounted on various kinds of home appliances, and preventing a large amount of harmful ozone from being generated.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In general, an air purifier is often used in a living room of a general home, a car, a restaurant having many people gathered, a hospital, and an office, so as to remove dust and odor for keeping indoor atmosphere pleasant.
Although the air purifier is often used separately, it is an increasing trend that the air purifier is used as a supplementary device being mounted on a home appliance such as an air conditioner. In other words, in recent years, many home appliances are on development, having not only a cooling/heating function and a ventilating function but also an air purifying function.
FIG. 1 illustrates a diagram schematically showing a related art air purifier, and FIG. 2 illustrates a cross sectional view taken along line I-I of FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the related art air purifier is provided with a case 10 having opened top and bottom surfaces, and a ground electrode 20 and a discharge electrode 30 provided in the case 10.
A plurality of ground electrodes 20 are provided in the case 10 at predetermined intervals, and the discharge electrode 30 is provided respectively between the ground electrodes 20. In this case, the ground electrode 20 includes a square plate, and the discharge electrode 30 includes a round wire.
An interval of more than a common number cm is maintained between the ground electrode 20 and the discharge electrode 30 each of which is connected respectively to a power supply (not shown) supplying a high voltage. A net 40 is mounted on the top and bottom surfaces of the case 10 for preventing large-sized contaminants from being entered into the case 10.
An operation of the related art air purifier structured as aforementioned is briefly described as follows. First, when a voltage is supplied to the ground electrode 20 and the discharge electrode 30 by the power supply, corona discharge that ionizes neighboring air is generated between the ground electrode 20 and the discharge electrode 30.
Owing to the corona discharge, anions and ozone are generated around an electrode, for separating contaminants contained in air and sterilizing bacteria. Therefore, the air flowed into the air purifier is purified by the anions and ozone.
In the mean time, the corona discharge is generated when the high voltage of more than 5 KV is applied to the ground electrode 20 and the discharge electrode 30. In this case, the voltage for generating the corona discharge is called an onset voltage, and the onset voltage is different according to an interval between the ground electrode 20 and the discharge electrode 30.
The related art air purifier purifies air by using the anions and ozone generated by the corona discharge. The related art air purifier, however, has problems as follows.
First, since the related art air purifier includes a plurality of ground electrodes and the discharge electrodes spaced at intervals of a number cm, there is a limitation in miniaturizing the related art air purifier. Particularly, there is a problem that a total size of a home appliance needs to be increased for securing a space for mounting the air purifier therein when the air purifier is mounted in the home appliance.
Second, the related art air purifier generates a large amount of ozone during the corona discharge. If a higher voltage is supplied to the electrode, a larger amount of ozone is generated. Although the ozone performs a role of separating organic substances in air as a substance having a very strong oxidizing power, it is harmless to a human body.
Therefore, the related art air purifier has a problem that a post-clearing process is required for removing a large amount of ozone after the corona discharge is certainly necessary.